How Technology Has Made Us What We Are, with Tom Chatfield
Intelligence Squared
Exploring the Impact of AI Advancements on Human Understanding
The advancements in AI have sparked discussions on existential dread and the fear of machines outsmarting humans, potentially making humans subservient. The new capabilities of AI in beating humans at games, creating artworks, and writing poetry challenge human self-conception and understanding of intelligence. AI's power to generate coherent outputs from vast data raises questions about the nature of understanding. AI is seen as a social technology reflecting the collective intelligence embedded in language and culture. The discussion around AI also delves into the concepts of rapture, transcendence, life, and death, highlighting human anxieties about the imbalance between our power as a species and our self-control. Various disciplines like myth, psychoanalysis, technology, philosophy, ethics, and art are essential tools to navigate and understand the profound implications of AI advancements on human existence.
